Those Connected by Darkness
by Freddy Oakster
Summary: Davis' first time in the Digital World wasn't with Kari and TK. He had been there before, with Ken and Ryo, fighting in the war against Milleniummon. How will the "new" group change from having an experienced warrior on the team?
1. Cryptic warnings and secrets revealed

**A/N:** _Welcome to the first chapter of Those Connected by Darkness. If you have read my earlier Digimon fic, then you know that this is written to replace that fic and thus is sort of a rewrite, but it will be majorly different. If this is your first time reading my Digimon Fics, here's a little summary for you._

 _The story is a sort of crossover between the the Tag-Tamers game and the Digimon Adventure 02 anime. The way it's set up is that prior to the events of the original Digimon Adventure, Davis got sucked into the Digital World when he was 7 years old, along with Ken and Ryo, and the three of them went on a quest to vanquish Milleniummon, similar to the Tag Tamers game. The way it all is tied together will be revealed as the fic progresses, so if you are willing to give it a read, you'll find out._

 **Di-di-di-disclaimer:** I don't own anything related to the Digimon franchise.

* * *

 **Chapter One:** Cryptic warnings and secrets revealed!

 _Davis watched in horror as JewelBeemon fell out of the sky after having been struck by Milleniummon's Giga Cannon. The humanoid insect-digimon's body had been completely roasted by the blast and the usually light green armor had turned a burnt black, still smoking from the heat of the attack. Milleniummon moved to finish his handiwork, but was thankfully intercepted by UlforceVeedramon._

 _"JewelBeemon!" Ken cried out in despair and tried to run out from their hiding spot._

 _Before he could make it to his partner however, Davis grabbed him by the wrist and held him back. Ken rounded on him in a second and looked like he wanted to argue, but one look at his friend was enough to dissuade him. There was nothing either of them could do at this point and they knew it. By putting themselves in danger, they would only become a hindrance to their partners in the fight. And at this point, they absolutely couldn't afford any setbacks._

 _They turned their attention back front, where UlforceVeedramon and Justimon did their best to hold off the beserk Milleniummon from finishing off JewelBeemon, with limited success. The sheer size of the beast made it difficult to hold it back, and a single hit from its powerful cannon could be enough to finish either of them off. The mere fact that JewelBeemon hadn't reverted to his Rookie Form yet was impressive._

 _"This is getting us nowhere!" Justimon called to his companion, as he dove out of the sky to avoid being struck by one of Milleniummon's claws. "We're hardly doing any damage to this thing at all, and the longer the battle goes on, the more exhausted we will get!"_

 _Just then, UlforceVeedramon dodged yet another "Giga Cannon" from Milleniummon without realizing that the blast hadn't been aimed at him in the first place. Both Davis and Ken screamed as they saw the large blast heading their way..._

With a start, 12 year old Davis Motomiya sat up in his bed. He was breathing heavily and sweat was pouring down his body as if he had just run a marathon. Underneath his wet shirt that was clinging to his torso like a swimming suit, he could feel his racing heart beat forcefully, almost painfully, in his chest.

It took a few moments for him to collect himself enough to recognize his surroundings. He was in his room in the Motomiya Residence, not in the Desert Area of the Digital World. And the light that was currently blinding him came from a ray of morning light that managed to get past his closed curtains, not from Milleniummon's Giga Cannon attack. And he was 12 years old, he repeated to himself, not 7 years old. To think that it had already been almost 6 years since... those events.

Taking a deep breath, he swallowed down a large amount of oxygen and tried to calm his beating heart. He closed his eyes and clenched his fist around the edge of the bed covers. He had to calm down or he'd faint from hyperventilation.

"It was just a dream." he whispered to himself in attempt to calm down. "Just a dream, nothing more, nothing less."

Breathing in one last deep breath, he opened his eyes again and turned to check what time it was on his wake-up-clock that was located to his left on his bedside table. 05.30 in the morning. Groaning in despair, he lied back down and rested his head on the pillow, focusing his gaze on the ceiling. He could've slept for an entire hour longer if it hadn't been for that stupid nightmare.

Well, there was no way he was going back to sleep now so he might as well get up and start the day. Sighing to himself, he rolled out of bed and began digging through the pile of clothes on the floor by his wardrobe to see if any of it could be re-used. He stopped himself as he remembered what day today was. Summer vacation was over, which meant that he would be starting High School today, which in turn meant that he would be wearing that blasted school uniform.

He sighed as he turned around to find the familiar uniform hanging by the door to his room. His parents had been estatic when he had brought home the news that he had been moved up two years in his education due to his outstanding grades and intelligence. At the time, he hadn't been too thrilled by the prospect of being separated from Hikari, one of his best friends, and seeing the green jacket and white shirt hanging over by his door now made him almost wish he would've refused the offer so that he would've put off wearing that uniform for as long as possible.

 _'Well, no going back now.'_ he thought grimly as he grabbed the hanger and made his way to the bathroom, careful not to make any noise since he knew that his parents and Jun were still asleep.

Once he was inside, he slipped out of his pyjamas and turned on the shower at as high temperature as he could, without getting scalded. Hot showers usually helped his muscles relax after Soccer Practice so hopefully it would help him relax after his nightly torment.

Taking another deep breath and willing his muscles to try and relax, he stepped into the shower and felt the hot water cascading down on him. It filled him with a strange sense of peace. For a few moments he just stood there, relishing the feeling of the water massaging his stiff back.

Eventually, he decided that it was about time he start freshening up for the day, so he reached for the soap and picked it up. However, with the water still flowing down his arm, his hand became slippy and he lost his grip on it.

Then something shifted in the air.

Davis felt rather than saw, how time slowed down around him as if he was in a Blue Ray film and someone had just hit the "Pause"-button. The falling soap stopped in mid air and the water from the shower stopped cascading down on him.

For a moment, he just stood there frozen in place like the surrounding area, all of which had frozen in the same moment. Then, he tried moving his fingers, only to find that he himself wasn't frozen. He tried grabbing the soup out of thin air and though it stayed in his hand when he withdrew it, the surface of the object stayed frozen in time. What was going on here?

" **Your worlds have been connected.** " a hoarse voice came from the other side of the draperies, making Davis jump in surprise and if time hadn't been frozen, he would've probably slipped on the slippery water on the floor.

Feeling his heartbeat rise, Davis slowly parted the drapery to find a humanoid figure at the far end of the bathroom, sitting with his arms crossed on the toilet seat as if it was the most natural thing in the world. The figure was dressed in an ominous cloak that was seemingly devoid of any distinguishing traits. Davis couldn't even catch a glimpse of his face due to the large hood that was pulled up over his head. If he hadn't looked so ridiculusly out of place, sitting casually on the toilet seat, Davis imagined the figure would've actually looked a bit more intimidating than he currently did.

When the figure felt Davis eyes on him, he (Davis assumed it was a he because of his build) turned around to face him, but despite that, Davis still couldn't get a good look on the stranger's face.

" **Tied to the great darkness that threatens both worlds.** " the figure continued in his hoarse voice.

The sound of the stranger speaking again snapped Davis out of his shock at seeing a hooded stranger just magically appear in a room that was supposedly locked, and he suddenly became very aware of exactly where they were.

"Hey you!" Davis burst out and pulled the drapery higher up his body, feeling very vulnerable standing there with just a piece of plastic cloth covering him in front of a stranger. "Have you ever heard of privacy?!"

For a moment, the stranger didn't say anything. Then, he got up from his seat and dusted off some imaginary dust off te front of his cloak. Davis instinctively pulled the drapery closer around himself.

" **You would do wisely to heed this warning, Davis. Yo** **u're the only one who knows your enemy's true power** **.** "

Just like that, Davis forgot all about his so called privacy, as he felt his heart clench painfully in his chest and skip a beat. The words "your enemy's true power" echoed through his head. He had heard those words before, in a past he had been trying to forget... the past that had recently come back to haunt him in the form of nightmares, like the one that had woken him up just this morning!

 _"You cannot even begin to understand the extent of your enemy's true power. We do not know where he came from, or how he was created, but we do know that in terms of raw strength, he is unmatched in this world. You and your partners may be strong, children, but Milleniummon controls space and time itself. If you wish to save our world, and your own, you will need to match the power of a true god."_

The temporary calmness he had managed to achieve while in the shower was gone as quick as it had come. Davis felt his heartbeat pick up as he remembered Lord Azulongmon's warning about the beast they were going up against, prior to their first confrontation with the monster in question. Milleniummon's power could tear continents in half and split even the sky into pieces. It was enough to make even one of the mighty sovreigns shake in their boots (or in that case, chains).

"What do you mean "my enemy's true power"? Milleniummon was destroyed 6 years ago! Veemon and I made sure of it!"

The mere thought of Milleniummon returning made Davis' throat go dry. That monster had been so close to ripping apart both worlds that even he couldn't make a joke about it. And even though they had managed to stop him, the damage had already been done. Time flow itself had been damaged by Milleniummon's Rampage and the gateway between the Human World and the Digital World had been severed. And truth to be told, Davis had hoped that the gateway would never open again.

" **I've said what I came to say. Now, I shall take my leave.** "

With that, the stranger took a step backwards and was engulfed in digital code. Seeing that he was about to disappear again, Davis snapped out of his stupor and threw the drapery aside, reaching out with his hand towards the stranger that was slowly disappearing in front of him.

"Hey, wait! Tell me more! What's going on and what do I have to do?!"

Too late. By the time he had finished the sentence the stranger had already disappeared and the moment he did, time unfroze itself. The sound of the cascading water in the background returned and the strange thickness of the air disappeared.

However, Davis didn't move. He just stood there, frozen in place, the words the stranger had spoken to him ringing through his ears. ' _Your world has been connected, tied to the great darkness that threatens both worlds_.' What in the name of the sovreigns did that mean? Well, it wasn't that hard to discern what "worlds" he was talking about, given that Davis only knew of two worlds that it could apply to, but what did he mean "connected"? And what was this "great darkness" that his world had supposedly been tied to?

Davis felt like a cold hand had gripped at his heart. Did it have something to do with Milleniummon? The stranger had mentioned "your enemy", and aside from a few minor evil digimon he had come across during his journey, Milleniummon was the only one that fit that simple description and was definetely the only one strong enough to threaten both worlds. But if Milleniummon was back, then that would mean...

"Hey Davis, you in there?! Hurry up! I need to get ready for school!" his sister Jun's voice brought Davis out of his thoughts and made him jump in surprise again. This time however, time wasn't frozen and so the wet and slippery floor was... well slippery, causing Davis to lose his footing and fall on his butt.

Groaning at his bad luck, Davis cast an angry glare in the direction of the door. Why was Jun up this early? It couldn't have been more than... he froze as his gaze found the digital clock on the wall. He had been in here for 40 minutes already?!

"Just a few more minutes, I'll be done in a jiff!" he called through the door as he got to his feet and hurried back into the shower to finish cleaning himself up.

 **-:TCD:-**

While Davis was getting ready for school and tried to explain to his sister why he spent over 40 minutes in the bathroom, a close friend of his was getting ready for the day, though her morning had went by smoothly, unlike Davis'. Hikari Kamiya stretched out on her bed covers and drew a deep, content breath as she relished the feeling of being done with her morning routines early. It was the first day of school and she didn't want to be late, but considering she had almost half an hour before she was supposed to walk out the door, she figured she could do with some relaxing.

As she took the time to relax a little and listened to the sounds of her brother desperately trying to find the stuff he needed for his first day back in High School, she thought about how excited she was for this upcoming year. There were lots of things that 5th graders were allowed to do that 4th graders weren't. They would have unrestricted access to the Computer Lab now which, while not something that excited Kari personally, definetely would make it easier to search for information for essays and pre-exam studies. Another thing that she would be allowed to do this year was to try out for the cheerleader team, as she would've turned 13 by the time of the tryouts.

Surprisingly, she looked forward to another year with the Photo Club. Originally, she had only joined the club on her brother's insistance that she take up some kind of hobby to keep her mind off of Gatomon and the others they had left behind in the Digital World. At first, she had been sceptic to what good joining a club could really do for her, but she had found that it actually did help a lot to have something else to think about.

Another thing she looked forward to this year was that TK, the only Digidestined who was close to her in age, had moved back to Odaiba and as such would be going to the same school as her. She really looked forward to sharing classes with him. Over the time they had spent in the Digital World, as well as the time they had spent together afterwards when they could meet up, the two of them had grown pretty close. It would be really nice to have him live closeby and she looked forward to introducing him to her friends.

Thinking of her friends however, that brought to mind the one thing that she _didn't_ look forward to this year. Her arguably best friend, Davis Motomiya, would no longer be going to the same school as her. They hadn't been sharing classes for quite some time now since Davis had been moved up two years in his education, but they had still spent most of their breaks together and always took the time out to stop and greet each other when they passed by in the corridor.

Sighing, Kari sat up and shook her head. She couldn't think like that. It wasn't like their friendship would end just because they might not see each other on a daily basis, right? They had known each other since they were 5 years old, and if their friendship could survive 7 years of all kinds of friendly trials, then surely it could survive them not seeing each other as often as they used to!

With that thought in mind, she got up and grabbed her bag that was hanging from the end of her bed. Unlike her brother, she had made sure to pack everything the previous day, before she went to bed so she wouldn't have to run around like a necked chicken in the early morning hours looking for stuff that she needed. After making sure she hadn't forgotten her cellphone and that her camera was hanging securely around her neck, she swung the bag over her shoulder and left her room.

"Kari!" her brother was on her the moment she closed the door to her room behind her. "Have you seen my goggles anywhere? I could've sworn I hung them over the edge of my chair in the kitchen yesterday, but now they're not there!"

Stiffling another yawn, Kari had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. This wasn't the first time Tai's goggles had disappeared over the last week, and she was pretty sure of who the cuprit was even this time.

"I think mom is trying to hide them. You know that she thinks you're too old to wear those out in public anymore, right?"

Cursing loudly, her brother stomped off muttering curses about their mom, who had already left for work that morning. Kari cast a glance after him before making her way to the door and leaving for school.

 **-:TCD:-**

Davis looked both ways before he crossed the street, schoolbag hanging loosely over his shoulders and hands in his pockets. While he walked, he mentally pondered what the stranger could've meant with his cryptic warning. It obviously had something to do with the Digital World, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what he had been trying to say. He had tried to call Ken and ask if he had received any similar warning, but for whatever reason all he got when he dialed Ken's number was static.

He was so engulfed in thought that he didn't even notice his best friend, Kari, waving to him from further up the street before she was right in front of him. By the time he noticed her and finally returned the greeting, a frown and spread across her pretty face. That more than anything snapped Davis back to reality. If he was so engrossed in his musings that he didn't even notice his best friend waving to him and calling his name, then he was really out of it.

"Oh, hi Kari! Sorry, guess I was kind of gone there for a second." he scratched the back of his head sheepishly and did his best to put on a smile.

Kari's frown just deepened at that.

"No kidding. Did something happen to you?" she paused for a second to take in the bags under his red eyes. "Did you have another nightmare?"

Davis just nodded in response. There was no use trying to deny it, even though that wasn't what had him spaced out. The two best friends fell into a step beside each other, with Kari studying the face of her friend with worry. It had been about 2 weeks ago now, that she had first noticed that Davis seemed to kind of... deflate, was probably the best way to describe it. He was usually a very cheerful and out-going person, but over the last two weeks he had grown distant and quiet. He kept more to himself, preferred to stay at home rather than go to the park and play soccer like he used to. Kari was starting to become seriously worried about him.

"Maybe you really should talk about it?" she began hesistantly, but Davis immediately broke her off.

"Kari, we've been over this. It's nothing to worry about. I'm probably just anxious to start High School two years earlier than I should have." he said firmly, the tone of his voice letting her known that he had no intention of discussing this further.

Silence fell over the pair as they came to a stop where Davis was supposed to break off in a new direction and go to High School, whereas Kari would have to walk the remaining distance to Middle School without him, for the first time since they had gotten enrolled.

"Well, I'll see you later then." she said, trying to ignore the slight sting in her chest as she realized just how much she used to treasure these morning walks with her best friend. It was one of the few times of the day when it was usually just the two of them. Since they otherwise spent a lot of time either in the park or in one of their apartments, there were always other people around, be it their friends or family.

"Sure thing. I'll drop by your school once I can escape from mine. If nothing else, I wanna rub it in Mr Fujiyama's face that I got away from him two years early." Davis added the last part with a goofy grin.

Kari wanted to reprimand him for his blatant disrespect towards their teachers, but found that she couldn't get angry with him for trying to ease up. Over the last two weeks, his smiles had become all the more unusual, so seeing him smile at her again, even if it was forced, made her feel like she could allow him to get away with his antics just this once. Besides, Mr Fujiyama wasn't technically Davis' teacher anymore, so he was under no obligation to treat him as such.

"Sounds great!" she smiled back at him.

And with that, they parted ways. As she continued on the familiar route towards the Odaiba Middle School, Kari found herself glancing back over her shoulder at Davis' retreating form. She wished she knew how to help him. There was something that wasn't quite right with her best friend and she didn't know what to do about it. Nightmares wasn't anything unusual, but when they had been consistant for a good two weeks straight, something definetely wasn't right. Davis' refusal to share them with her also did nothing to ease her suspicions. It was as if he _knew_ what was wrong, but didn't want her to know about it, which in and of itself was really weird. They usually shared anything and everything with each other.

Well, that wasn't entirerly true. There was _one_ _thing_ that Kari had knowingly kept Davis in the dark about, namely her involvement with an entirerly different world. Originally, she had wanted to tell him about it, she really had, but Tai and Sora had convinced her that he was better off not knowing. Besides, it wasn't as if they had any contact with their partners at this point, much less the Digital World in general, so even if she told him she wouldn't be able to prove its existance. He would probably just think she had hit her head or something if she told him, or think she had gone crazy. If they ever got to see their partners again, she knew that she would have to tell him about it. They simply spent too much of their time together for him not to find out sooner or later. But until that happened, she wasn't willing to risk their friendship over it.

Unbeknownst to her, Davis was thinking almost the exact same thing. It had been almost 6 years now since he had been sucked into the Digital World, and not even a single day had passed without him reconsidering his decision to not tell Kari about what had happened. While he had spent an entire year in that world, only a day had passed in the Real World and so the changes in his personality had been obvious to anyone who knew him even remotely.

However, Kari was the only one he had ever considered sharing his adventures with, but had ultimately decided against it. He had reasoned that she was better off not knowing what he had been forced to endure. And yet, for every day that had passed since then, the feeling of guilt for not telling her had kept on growing. And with the cloaked stranger's warning still fresh in mind, Davis was glad that he hadn't told her. If he was called back to the Digital World again, he didn't want to make her an unwilling target by asociation.

 **-:TCD:-**

Chaos. That was the best way to describe the state the Digital World was currently in. It had been three days now, since the Digimon Emperor had first appeared and created the first Control Spire, and ever since then the Digital World had been thrown into a state of panic. He struck quick and mercilessly, and he always appeared when the world's inhabitants least expected it. And such had been the case even in the forest where the majority of the Digidestined's partners had lived since their separation from their friends.

Gatomon was, just like the rest of the forest's inhabitants, running as far away from the Control Spire that had appeared atop the hill just on the outskirts of the forest's north edge as she could. She had no idea where the others were, or how they were doing, but she had enough on her plate as it was without worrying about Agumon and the others. Even though they were all just rookies, they were strong enough to take care of themselves.

All around her, she heard the terrified screams of Digimon that either got caught by one of the Emperor's Dark Rings, or watched one of their friends get caught and turned against them. She did her best not to think about the possibility that one of those screams could be one of her own friends in need of help. Her rational mind told her that she should try and do something to stop it. It was her duty as a protector of the Digital World. Her survival instincts however, which were admitedly far more sharpened than those of her friends' due to having been subjected to Myotismon's cruel reign, told her to run as far away from the threat as possible. If she got distracted and got caught, she wouldn't be able to help anyone.

So engrossed was she in this internal dilemma that she didn't notice the approaching shadow of a Unimon that was, unfortunately, wearing a Dark Ring around its neck. She cried out in pain as the slave of the Emperor struck her with its signature move and she was thrown back into the trunk of a tree. The Unimon didn't let up its assault though, and barely had she gotten back on her feet before she was forced to dodge another " _ **Aerial Attack!**_ ".

As she rolled forward to avoid yet another blast from the unicorn-like Digimon's mouth, she failed to realized that she had gotten too close to her opponent in the process. Unimon's hoof descended on her small form and caught her tailring against the ground, resulting in it being pulled off her tail when she rolled to avoid another stomp.

The effect was immediate. The moment the tailring lost contact with her tail, Gatomon felt her muscles go lax and slack, as if they had been stung with a needle and deflated. Exhaustion caught her for a moment and that was all the time Unimon needed to finally land another successful " _ **Aerial Attack!**_ ". Gatomon cursed mentally as she felt her feet leave the ground again. She flailed wildly with all four of her limbs until she landed painfully on her back on a hard surface.

The moment she landed, the sounds of the forest disappeared to be replaced by the unmistakeable sound of a bustling street. For a moment, Gatomon just lay there, exhausted from the escape and the battle. What greeted her when she opened her eyes however, was not the glowing red eyes of Unimon, or an approaching Dark Ring, like she had expected. Instead, she was greeted by the sight of... _asphalt_?

Feeling her energy return to her, Gatomon swiftly jumped to her feet in shock and swung her head around, feeling disorientated. What had just happened? Hadn't she been in a forest? However, as her sharp eyes travelled across her surroundings, there wasn't even a hint of green to be found. She was standing in an alley of some sort, surrounded by dustbins and garbage. For a moment, she just stood there and stared at the closest dustbin in shock. Then, the implications of what had happened finally sunk in.

 _She was in the human world!_

 **-:TCD:-**

At that exact moment when Gatomon crossed over to the human world again for the first time in four years, Kari's Digivice reacted to the familiar prescence. It began beeping and the screen lit up with a pink light that made her entire school bag look like it was glowing. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on what way you wanted to look at it, Kari herself was not carrying her bag at the time. It was lying in her locker while Kari herself was attending her last class for the day, and only the janitor that was currently cleaning the corridor saw it. Mistaking it for some kind of paranormal activity, said janitor dropped his mop and left the corridor in a rush.

Davis was just on his way towards where he remembered Kari's locker to be when he passed the fightened janitor. He didn't hear exaclty what the man was screaming about, but he was able to make out the words "ghost" and "haunted locker" from his incoherent babbling. Frowning, he turned around the corner and came to a complete stop at the sight of Kari's locker being lit up like a christmas tree.

"What in the world...?" he muttered as he cautiosly made his way over to the locker.

He felt like a cold hand had gripped at his heart, and was tightening its grip around it the closer he got to the locker. Stopping right in front of the locker, he had to squint his eyes to shield them from the blinding light. Slowly, he reach over towards the lock and only hesitated for a second before he began turning the wheel around to dial the code to unlock it. Kari had given him the code to her locker once when she had asked him to bring home some books she had left in her locker so she could study at home, even though she was sick, and he knew for a fact that she hadn't changed the code since.

True enough, the lock clicked and Davis wasted no time in pulling it open. The glow was coming from Kari's schoolbag, and it had an eerily familiar feeling to it, like he had seen it somewhere before. He bit his lips in anticipation as he reached into her bag (he didn't want to open it and look inside if he didn't have to. That would feel like he was invading her privacy) and felt his hand automatically close around a pulsating metal object. He felt his heart sink in his chest as he recognized the familiar feeling of the device. Even though he hadn't seen it yet, he knew exactly what it was.

' _A Digivice?!'_ he thought in shock as he pulled the object out of the bag.

Sure enough, it was a Digivice. It looked just the same as his own Digivice had looked when he first got it all those years ago, when it came out of the computer in his dad's computer room. Since then, his own Digivice had changed to a new shape after their final clash with Milleniummon, but that had hardly mattered since at that point he no longer had a partner. There had been six of them that entered that final battlefield, and only two of them had made it out alive...

As he took a moment to reminise about those days, Davis felt anger rise in his chest. Hadn't the Digital World ruined enough lives as it was? Not only that, but it had to be Kari of all people, _his_ Kari! How long had she been in possession of this cursed thing? Had she already been dragged into the Digital World and exposed to its horrors? Davis knew first hand that while the Digital World wasn't nescesarily a horrible place, it was ruled by the Law of the Jungle, where the strong killed the weak. For a weak human who did not enjoy fighting, it would be like a living hell.

His hand clenched around the Digivice, his entire body trembling. There was only one way to find out how Kari was connected to the Digital World and that was to ask her himself. There was of course possible that she didn't know what the device was even for, or that it had appeared in her bag just now for the first time, but somehow he doubted it.

Closing the locker with unnescesary force, Davis pressed a button on Kari's Digivice to stop its glowing and pulsating and the object fell lifeless in his hand. Taking a deep breath to try and clear his thoughts, he looked around to make sure no one else was there before he put it in his pocket and leaned against the locker next to Kari's, to wait for the girl in question to arrive. However, despite the calm and nonchalant expression he wore, inside his heart was still racing. This was the worst first day in High School he could've possibly gotten.

 **-:TCD:-**

Kari sighed as the door to the Kamiya Residence clicked open. So far, her afternoon hadn't been quite what she had expected. Davis had finished his first day in High School early, so he had come over to meet up with her in Elementary School, just like he had promised, but aside from that nothing had gone the way she had wanted it to.

First off, she had attempted to introduce TK and Davis to each other. They were after all the two best friends she had and she had hoped that they would get along. Sadly, they had only exchanged greetings and then turned away from each other. While that was nothing new for Davis (especially not when he was in a foul mood), TK was usually more receptive of strangers than that.

After that, she had hoped that the three of them could go downtown and find something fun to do, since they had yet to receive any homework, but TK had said that he had promised he'd meet up with two kids from his new apartment building, Cody Hida and Yolei Inoue, that afternoon and do something with Yolei's computer. Kari didn't know the girl personally, but she knew that Yolei was one year older than them, and that she was a member of the school's Computer Club. While Kari couldn't fault TK for trying to make new friends when he had just moved into the neighbourhood, she had hoped that he would want to spend his first day with her and Davis.

On top of that, Davis had been in a strange mood ever since they left school. He had kept staring at her whenever he thought she wasn't looking. It was obvious there was something that was bothering him, but when she asked if there was something on her face, he just looked away and ignored her question.

As the two of them went to Kari's room to drop their stuff off, Kari sat down on her bed and opened her bag to retrieve her cellphone. However, it was another device that caught her attention. Or rather, the lack of another device...

"Hey, where's my...?" she just barely caught herself as she was reminded of Davis' prescence. It was times like these, more than anything, that she wished she could just up and tell her best friend about the Digital World. It had been such a huge part of her personality for the last four years, and yet she couldn't tell her best friend about it. And she knew that she wasn't the only one who wished they could talk to someone about it.

"You looking for this thing?" Davis voice brought her out of her musings.

Kari looked up from her bag and felt her blood run cold. Leaning against the doorframe of her room, Davis was looking at her with a calculating look in his eyes, and with one hand in his pocket. The other hand... was holding her Digivice!

"O-oh, that thing? Yeah, as a matter of fact I was looking for it. Where did you find it?" she asked nervously. Something about this didn't seem right to her. Why did Davis have her Digivice. She was certain it had been in her bag all day and as far as she knew, Davis hadn't been anywhere near her bag. The look he was giving her also made her feel slightly unnerved.

"Cut the crap Kari, I know what it is. How long have you had this Digivice?"

If she had been unnerved before, then Kari felt like she was a nervous wreck by now. She felt like the words Davis had just spoken had been a physical slap to her face. He knew! But how?! She hadn't told him anyhting about the Digital World, she had been so careful not to accidently mention it or tell him anything!

She felt a headache coming up. This was not happening. It couldn't be happening! Groaning, she brought both her hands to her heads and fell back against the bed covers. Her head was spinning with questions and confusion. Davis knew about the Digital World! The realization hadn't really sunk in yet. It was just too absurd for her to completely process it.

Davis was watching Kari's reaction from over by the door. As he watched her face turn from surprised, to shock and then to horrified, he felt his tense facial muscles ease up. He wasn't angry with her or anything, he was just worried. Seeing how distressed his friend had become over the revealation, he slowly made his way over to the bed and sat down next to her. Kari, who had been lying down facing the ceiling, turned her head and their eyes locked on to each other. Trying to put on the best smile he could muster, Davis reached out and grabbed his friend's hand and squeezed it reasuringly to show that he wasn't upset.

"H-how do you know about the Digital World?" Kari managed to croak out. Her throat constricted painfully as she spoke, as if it was still trying to deny the fact that Davis somehow knew about Digimon. The pressure on her windpipe almost made her choke and cause a few involuntary tears to escape her eyelids.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, and the conflicting feelings of anger and relief he currently felt, Davis couldn't help but smile. Kari wasn't angry with him for taking her Digivice or for not telling her anything about the parallel dimension that they were both apparently connected to. She was more worried about that he would be angry with her for not telling him, if the look in her eyes was anything to go by.

Without saying a word, he reached down to his belt and pulled out his own Digivice. He had heeded the stranger's warning from earlier that morning and had brought it along with him wherever he went as a precaution if something really did happen. That was the only way he could think of as "preparing" for whatever was coming his way.

As her eyes landed on the other Digivice that Davis was now holding in front of her, Kari felt her heart skip a beat. It looked a bit different from her's and the others' Digivices, having a more oval-like shape to it and being colored dark gray and blue, but it was most definetely a Digivice. Davis was a Digidestined! For a few seconds, Kari just sat there staring at the proof in front of her. Then, she felt her lips being drawn out into a smile as the tears that had formed from choking earlier turned into tears of joy. She wouldn't have to hide the Digital World to her best friend any longer! Without thinking, she grabbed Davis by the shoulders and pulled him into a hug.

"Wha-! Kari, what are you...?" Davis yelped in surprise and the unexpected embrace, but the girl just shook her head as she snuggled into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I'm just so happy right now. I won't have to hide anything from you anymore..." she whispered emotionally into his ear.

Davis just sat there, shocked at her reaction to the revealtion, but soon found that he too felt a certain weight being lifted from his shoulders. He had kept this secret from his best friend for 6 years, and now he could finally share it with her. Feeling his own eyes sting slightly as he thought about it (he was _not_ crying!), he returned the embrace. Time was lost on the two best friends as they sat there, relishing the feeling of a burden having been lifted off their shoulders, but they were eventually brought out of their musings as Kari's Digivice went off again.

The beeping and flashing light brought them out of their semi trance-like state and made them separate to stare at the little device. Drying her happy tears on her sleeves, Kari reached out and grabbed the Digivice and examined it. The digital device hadn't been activated since they separated from their partners 4 years ago, so for it to activate again now of all times, then that would have to mean...

 _Knock, knock!_

* * *

 **A/N:** _Yeah, I think that will do it for now. The pace at the start of the story will be kind of slow, as the new digidestined needs to be introduced properly and get to know each other. I feel like in canon, they were all just randomly slapped together and then they went from there. I want my characters to have some kind of depth to them, especially Davis and Kari as they are the main protagonists._

 _And if you read "Those Linked by Darkness" and that is the sole reason why you're here right now, then you might notice that I changed quite a few things. I got reasons for making the changes I did to the introduction of the characters, but there is two things in particular I want to adress and that is Davis attending High School, rather than Elementary School, and the state of the Digital World._

 _Where I live, if a student keeps achieving outstanding grades and study ahead of their age group, they are usually moved up a year as to not hamper their development. Davis is supposed to be this borderline prodigy in this fic (for a reason you can probably guess), so it stands to reason that he would keep getting ahead of his peers. As it stands, he have been moved up a year at 2 separate occasions, putting him 2 years ahead of Kari and TK, and 1 year ahead of Yolei._

 _When it comes to the Digital World and the gateway between the two worlds, here's how I see it. After the Digidestined were called back to release their Crests and restore the Digital World, the gateway sealed itself shut in order to allow the world to recover properly without any outside influences. As such, none of the original Digidestined have seen or even heard from their partners since then._

 _Now, I hope that you enjoyed Chapter One and that you will be back for the next chapter, when our friends re-enter the Digital World for the first tme in 4 years! If you liked this, then there is this nice little thing called the "Follow" and the "Favourite"-button somewhere down below that you can click and I would appreciate it if you would leave a review to let me know what you think. Until next time! :)_


	2. Digital Once Again

**A/N:** _Don't ask me how it happened, but I got really hyped to continue this story and have been writing the entire day. My fingers are going to ache for days after this! *Shudders*. Anyway, before we get into this there is something I want to adress and that is the characters' ages._

 _I write this story on the basis that Davis was 6-7 years old when he first entered the Digital World and that Kari and TK were 8-9 years old at the time of Adventure 01 (putting the two events with 2 years apart from each other, as they are the same age in the present day). In the present day, Davis, Kari and TK are 12 years old, running on 13. Izzy is two years older than them, meaning he is around 15 years old at the start of the story, and he is in turn 1 year younger than Tai, Sora, Matt and Mimi, which puts them at 16 years old (the second year of High School, at least where I live)._

 _Hopefully, that cleared it up somewhat for you. If you got any questions, feel free to ask them and I'll answer as best I can without spoiling the future plot. Now, go ahead and enjoy the second chapter!_

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own the Digimon Franchise. If I did, you wouldn't be reading this here. You would've watched it as the second season of Digimon.

* * *

 **Chapter Two:** Digital Once Again

"Hey Kari, you in there? You'll never guess who..."

Taichi Kamiya froze on the doorstep to his little sister's room. There, sitting opposite to Kari on the girl's bed, was her best friend Davis Motomiya. While that in itself wasn't a problem, it was more the fact that Tai himself was carrying Kari's Digimon Partner, Gatomon, in his arms that made him freeze up. When he had run into the little feline digimon on his way back home after his first day back in High School, he had become so estatic and happy for his little sister that he hadn't even considered the risk that there might be someone with her that shouldn't know about the Digital World. He had been careless.

To his surprise however, Davis didn't seem surprised at the appearence of the strange creature in Tai's arms. He blinked a few times as he looked at it, before he turned to glance at Kari from out of the corner of his eye. As always when he was thinking, Tai felt like he could practically hear the gears turning in that brilliant child prodigy brain of his. What he said next however, would forever be imprinted into Tai's memory.

"I take it that the Gatomon over there is your partner, Kari?" Davis asked the girl sitting opposite to him.

Tai felt like someone had kneed him in his mid-section and caused him to lose his breath. He slowly turned to stare at his sister with disbelieving eyes. After having kept it a secret for all this time, even after his and Sora's constant warnings not to tell Davis (well, not to tell anyone at all, but Davis had been the only one Kari had really wanted to tell) anything about their adventures in the Digital World...

"You told him?!"

The sound of his voice seemed to snap Kari out of whatever state she had been put in by the sudden re-appearence of her partner. She shook her head wildly as her mind processed what her big brother was accusing her off.

"No Tai, it's not what it looks like! I didn't tell him anything, Davis figured it out on his own! He's a digidestined, just like us! Look, he's got his own Digivice!" Kari said and lifted Davis' hand into the air to show Tai the gray and blue object.

It took a few seconds before Tai's mind caught up with what Kari had said, but once it did his eyes immediately travelled to the device that his young friend was holding. Like his sister just a few minutes before him, he quickly came to the same conclussion that even if it did look a little different from the ones he and his friends had received during their first adventure, there was no doubt that it was a digivice.

Two mental shocks in the span of just one hour. That was almost too much, even for someone as headstrong as Tai. Feeling as if someone had hit him atop his head with a really hard soccerball, Tai sat down on the floor to keep himself from fainting.

"Davis is a digidestined?" he repeated, dumbfonded by this new turn of events.

While Tai and Davis stared at each other, the feline that the older boy had been holding on to had wrestled its way loose from his grip and run over to her partner. Kari's cry of joy at being reunited with Gatomon was however lost on the two boys who had both thought that they knew pretty much anything there was to know about the other. They had been as close as brothers, and yet they had both been keeping something like this from each other?

Davis felt a headache building up behind his forehead. This was just all too much. Kari was one thing, but Tai as well? How come everyone he knew suddenly had a Digimon and on top of that seemed to have known about the Digital World for quite some time? Groaning at the broader implications this held, he broke eye contact with his older brother-figure and pinched the bridge of his nose.

This was no coincidence.

If there was anything that had been beaten into his head during his previous adventure in the Digital World, it was that any contact a human had with a Digimon was not coincidential. There was always a reason as to why that particular human had met that particular Digimon at that particular point in time. When he had first been pulled into the Digital World, the first Digimon he had come across was Veemon, the digimon that would go on to become his partner and he knew that the same had applied to both Ken and Ryo. If both Tai and Kari were Digidestined, they had been made that for a reason.

"Wait, what happened to your tailring?!" Kari's voice brought the two boys out of their stupor.

Frowning, Davis looked over to his side, where Kari and Gatomon had broken up their joyful embrace. His eyes immediately darted to the feline's tail and noticed that, indeed, it was lacking its trademark Holy Ring. While he was in no way an expert on different digimon and their abilities and traits (that was more Ken's area. He had always been the most observant out of the three of them), he knew that a digimon that was in possession of a Holy Ring tended to be severely weakened if they lost it.

One look at Gatomon's face was all the answer he needed to know that the same applied to this one. Her ears slumped and the happy smile that had graced its face at being reunited with her partner disappeared to be replaced with sad expression that let Davis know that something wasn't right. Something told him that they were in for a long explanation about what was wrong, and if his instincts were correct, he wouldn't like it.

 **-:TCD:-**

"So this Digimon Emperor just came out of nowhere and began enslaving digimon left and right?" Tai scratched his chin in thought.

They were currently seated in the Kamiya Family's living room, with Kari sitting on the couch with Gatomon in her lap while Tai and Davis occupied the sofa. The distress in Gatomon's expression had been enough to calm the questions that burned within both the Kamiya siblings, and their arguably best friend, at least for the time being. As soon as they had settled down, Gatomon had went on to tell them about the Digimon Emperor and how he appeared seemingly out of thin air and began enslaving digimon by using these Dark Rings.

"That's right. And he's also built a lot of these tower-like things called Control Spires, that transmits some kind of energy field across the area where they're located that keeps digimon from digivolving any further." Gatomon went on to explain.

"But that's horrible! We've got to do something!" Kari exclaimed, before turning to her older brother. "We can do something, right Tai?"

Tai was quiet for a few minutes. Kari was right, they had to do something. However, there was one thing that could, or rather _would_ , become a problem for them. They had no way to transport themselves to the Digital World at this point in time. Everytime they had gone there in the past, they had been summoned by Gennai for one reason or another, and then _he_ had opened the gate for them. They had no idea how to open a gate of their own.

"I wish we could, but how are we gonna get there?" he asked miserably.

Kari just stared at her brother's troubled face as if she didn't want to believe what he had just said, before she realized that he was right. She felt her heart sink in her chest and she bit her lip in frustration as she thought about all the poor digimon that had been enslaved by the Emperor. It made her feel so helpless to know what was happening in the Digital World at this very moment, yet not being able to do anything about it.

Davis had been quiet throughout Gatomon's tale. The way the feline described the Digital World as a peaceful place had seemed odd to him, but he had refrained from commenting on it, as to not draw any attention to himself and his previous adventure. However, something had struck him as even more odd than that and that was the fact that as Gatomon explained about the state the Digital World was in right now, both Kari and Tai had seemed... distressed. It was as if they _wanted_ to go there.

As he studied the faces of his two best friends, he soon realized why that was. They both still had friends there. Both of their partners and probably the rest of their group's partners were still alive! Thinking back to the way he himself had acted before Veemon's death, he realized that if his friends had survived that final clash with Milleniummon, he probably would've been more eager to go back there and help as well. Regardless of how he felt now, the Digital World had brought him some of the greatest joys of his life. It wasn't until he lost Veemon, Wormmon, Monodramon and Ryo that he had developed the mindset that the two worlds should remain separated.

He clenched his fist in frustration. Tai and Kari might not have a way to get to the Digital World, but _he did_. When he had been transported there the first time, it had been through his dad's computer screen after he had picked up a strange S.O.S email that contained a gateway to the Digital World. The gate had closed itself once he had returned there since the dimensional barrier had been repaired after he gave up his Crest of Miracles to restore the worlds to their original state, but that's what the mysterious stranger from that morning had been trying to say.

" _Your worlds have been connected."_

He had been trying to tell Davis that the barrier had become unstable again, enough so to create a gateway between the Real World and the Digital World. Even though it had been 6 years since then, Davis still had the portal downloaded on his computer. If he just tapped into it and modified it slightly, he felt confident that he would be able to tear it open by force if the barrier really had become unstable.

"But there must be something we can do!" Kari's voice brought Davis out of his thoughts.

The girl had rose out of her seat and clenched her fist in frustration, though her frustration was obviously for another reason than her best friend. Despite that, she was looking at her older brother with determination clearly evident in her otherwise soft brown eyes. As Davis gazed into her eyes, he felt himself caught between a rock and a hard place. Kari wanted so badly to go help her partner fight in the Digital World, and he had the key to fulfill that desire.

On one hand, he could help his best friend and tear open a gateway to the Digital World to allow her the chance to save her friends. The problem with that was, he himself didn't _want_ to open a gate to that place. His last adventure had left him with a wish to never ever return to that place, and he wanted even less to risk putting Kari of all people in harms way by sending her there.

On the other hand, seeing the desperation in his friend's eyes he wanted so badly to put her fears to rest. Kari meant the world to him, and to see her like this made him feel horrible when he _knew_ that he might be able to do something about it. If he were to be honest, Kari was probably the only reason he had even managed to stay remotely sane after he had returned from the Digital World, traumatized and paranoid as he had become. Those first weeks back in the Real World he had barely been able to keep it together, but Kari's unwavering friendship had shone to him like a light at the end of a dark cave.

" _When hard times approach, there is always a choice. The choice between doing what is right, and what is easy."_

When Lord Azulongmon had first spoken those words to him all those years ago, he hadn't understood exactly what he meant. But as he was torn between granting his best friend her wish to go to the Digital World, and his own desire to stay away from that place, he felt like he finally understood the meaning behind those words. It was about having the courage to do what he knew he had to do, rather than what he wanted to do. He was going to end up doing something he didn't want to do regardless of what he chose, and if that was the case then he'd rather help his friend.

"Guys." he spoke up quietly, feeling his heart waver in his chest in response to what he was about to do. "I think I might know of a way to open a gate to the Digital World."

At this, three pairs of eyes quickly turned to stare at him. However, Davis sole focus was directed at Kari, and what he saw made his chest ease up a little. Seeing the desperation slowly disappear from her eyes to be replaced by hope, he felt a strange warmness spread throughout his entire body, knowing that he had been the one to light that hope in his best friend's eyes. He knew that he had made the right choice.

 **-:TCD:-**

Barely half an hour later, a small group of children had gathered together in the Odaiba Elementary School Computer lab. In the short time that had passed, Tai had managed to get ahold of Izzy and TK, and as soon as the two of them had heard what was going on they had come rushing to meet up with the two Kamiya siblings and their best friend. While Tai would've preferred to have gathered the entire team, the others were busy with Tennis Practice, rehearsing and additional medical studies respectively (not to mention that one of them were living on the other side of the globe) so a group of 5 would have to do.

Davis was rapidly tapping away at his computer, while Izzy was watching his every move with interest and fascination. As Izzy was a year younger than Tai, Sora and Matt, and Davis had been moved up two years in his education a few years back, the two of them had shared classes for a while and knew each other from group study projects. They had both been equally stunned to find out that the other was a Digidestined as well, but after the revealation that his two best friends had known about the Digital World all along, Davis had just shrugged it off and muttered something about "the irony of fate".

As he quickly solved the advanced equations that were ingrained in the sealed Digital Portal, Davis began to grow anxious. He was really going back. After all this time of hating the place for what it had done to him, one sad look from Kari had been enough to persuade him to come back to the Digital World once more. Quite frankly, it scared him a little that Kari seemed to hold such a high influence over him, but what scared him even more was the thought of what could happen once they arrived. When Tai had briefed TK and Izzy on the situation, Davis had picked up enough of their conversation to figure out that all of them still had their partners, so they would probably be okay. He however, didn't have a partner anymore. Once they arrived, he would be like a sitting duck.

"Alright, here goes nothing." he said out loud as he put the finishing touches to his work.

As if on cue, all 5 of the Digidestined that had gathered unhooked their Digivices from their belts. A quick glance at them showed Davis that they all had the same model as Kari and Tai, the same one that he had once had. Taking a deep breath, he stood up from his seat and backed away so that they all could see what they were dealing with.

"Here's how it'll work. I'm going to use my Digivice to tear open a rift in the Dimensional Barrier. Normally, this would be impossible but the barrier have become unstable enough so that I've been able to establish a connection between our world, and the Digital World through this computer. Once the rift has opened, you guys should be able to use your Digivices to follow after me."

He then turned to Izzy specifically.

"However, meddling with the Dimensional Barrier is risky and there is a chance that I'll either be stuck on the other side, or get stuck in between the worlds. If that happens to any of us, the barrier will most likely close itself up again. Therefore, I want you to remain here until the others have made it through so if something happens, you'll be able to tear it re-establish the connection. You remembered how to, right?"

The older boy nodded, his eyes the very embodyment of determination. He knew perfectly well that meddling with the barrier could be dangerous and the way Davis had explained it to him while he worked, he had understood that what they were doing now was not a natural procedure. If something happened, they would need an anchor here in the Real World in case they needed to be pulled back. While he was a little put off that he wouldn't get to go, he understood the importance of the task he would be shouldering.

"You guys better make sure Tentomon is alright for me." he said to no one in particular, but his gaze lingered on Tai specifically as he said it.

"Of course." the old leader said and put a hand firmly on his friend's shoulder. "I'd rather die than let one of our friends get hurt. You know that, Izzy."

Over where she stood with TK, Kari twisted uncomfortably at the firmness of her brother's voice. There was no doubt in her mind that he meant every one of those words and that if it came down to it he wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice himself to keep the others safe, and the thought of it unnerved her greatly.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." TK spoke up as he noticed how uncomfortable Kari had become. "We'll just get in there, make sure our friends are all right, and then come right back. As much as I hate to admit it, we don't have neither the time, nor the strength to save the entire world right now so we shouldn't linger too long, especially not if the portal is as unstable as Davis says."

Davis, who had been watching the group's interaction with slight envy, nodded. He had forgotten what it felt like to be part of a team. After their last adventure, he and Ken had kind of just drifted apart, each too caught up in their own grieving to care about the other. As he watched this group of friends, that had been through so much together, he silently swore that no matter what happened, he wouldn't let the Digital World tear this group apart the way it had tore his own group apart.

With that resolve in mind, he turned towards the screen and held out his Digivice. He took a deep breath and focused on the power within him, the power he knew had been resting inside him since their defeat of Milleniummon. As he felt the familiar and intimidating aura rise in his chest, a certain spot on his neck began to burn fiercly and he had to bite his jaws tightly together to keep himself from reacting to it. He hated the thought of using this power, but it was the only way to tear the gate open.

"Well, what're we waiting for? Let's go!" he said firmly and held out his Digivice. " **Digi-Port open!** "

Just as the words left his lips, a blue light erupted from the screen and engulfed him. As Kari, Tai and TK mirrored Davis and held out their Digivices towards the screen, the light grew to engulf them as well and a second later, they were being sucked into the computer. Izzy had to resist the urge to pull out his own Digivice, but he managed to keep his arms firmly by his sides. As the light faded, he stared at the spot where his friends had been just a second ago, before he let out a sigh and pulled up a chair so he could monitor the state of the portal.

"Good luck, guys." he said. "I'm counting on you."

 **-:TCD:-**

The first thing that Davis noticed as they landed in the Digital World was a throbbing pain in his neck. Unable to contain it, he let out a loud curse and grabbed his neck with his left hand, where the burning sensation was emanating from. However, it only took a second before the pain faded and he could breathe a sigh of relief.

' _Dammit._ ' he though as he managed the spot with his hand. ' _I knew it would hurt, but why did it have to be the neck?'_

However, he soon got other things to think about as the sound of a loud beeping broke him out of his thoughts. Beside him, both TK and Tai had stood up with their Digivices in their hands, and the beeping seemed to come from them. The devices were reacting to the physical prescence of their partners, a prescence they hadn't felt for such a long time. It wasn't as flashy as it had been when Gatomon had crossed over to the Real World (Davis assumed that was the reason Kari's Digivice had lit up in the locker earlier) but it was still the last proof he needed to know that their partners were still alive and unharmed.

"Wow, I can't believe we're really back!" TK exclaimed excitedly, before he began turning his Digivice around to try and determine in which direction his partner was located.

"Yeah, it's been 4 years." Tai said as he mirrored TK's actions.

Carefully, Davis stood up and looked around. They were in a clearing of some sort, surrounded by lots and lots of strangely bent trees. It all looked so familiar to him, like the first time he had entered the Digital World. There wasn't even a sign of Milleniummon's Rampage, it was as if the fearsome Composition Digimon had never existed. Seeing this kind of serenity in the Digital World again, Davis had a hard time identifying this as the same place as the scorched wasteland that it had been reduced to after his last adventure here.

"Hey, Davis? Are you okay?"

Shaking his head to clear it of those depressing thoughts, Davis spun around to find Kari looking at him with a worried expression. Beside her, Gatomon was looking around with suspicion, as if she expected something to jump out at her at any given moment. Which, given her retelling of the recent events, wouldn't be too farfetched of a suspicion to be honest.

"I'm fine. I just didn't expect..." he froze half way through his sentence as his instincts suddenly went highwire and gave him a second's warning that something was coming their way. "Look out!"

Acting on instinct, he grabbed Kari and pulled her to the ground with him. The girl let out a surprised cry, that drew the attention of the remaining two members of their small group, and just in time too.

" _ **Volcanic Strike!**_ " a guttural voice echoed through the clearing, as a rain of fireballs flew out of the bushes a few feet away from them and just barely missed the 4 children.

Tai and TK followed Davis example and threw themselves to the ground as another round of fireballs rained down at them. Cursing loudly, Davis wasted no time in pulling Kari to her feet again as soon as the fireballs had stopped raining down on them. If they wanted to get out of this alive, they would need to be on their feet so they could react to the threat at a moments notice. If they were on the ground, they were literally just sitting ducks.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked as his eyes darted to the spot where the attack had come from.

As he received a collective "I think so" from the other three, a Monochromon walked into the area, wearing a Dark Ring around its abdomen. Davis felt adrenaline pump through his veins at the sight of the Digital Monster. He grit his teeth as his eyes quickly scanned through the area for any additional threats. The attack from earlier had set the grass in the clearing on fire, so they would have to move out as soon as possible, but the Monochromon was blocking the only exit that wasn't covered in flames.

" _ **Lightning Paw!** " _a shout was heard as Gatomon descended on the offending digimon and slashed at its face. It barely had any effect, if any at all, and the Monochromon didn't hesitate to retaliate by swinging its head around and knock Gatomon back towards the group. The feline digimon cried out in pain as she hit the ground hard a few feet ahead of the group and rolled over, obviously unconcious.

"Gatomon!" Kari cried and ran over to her partner.

The world seemed to slow down around him as Davis mind processed what had just happened, and what this meant. And one look at the Monochromon's glowing red eyes told him that he wasn't the only one who had realized what this meant. As if in slow motion, he darted forward at the same time as the Monochromon and dove towards his friend, just barely missing one of the Monochromon's huge feet as he grabbed her and rolled out of the way from the offending digimon.

"Kari!" both Tai and TK screamed in fear as they watched how the Monochromon just barely missed her and Davis with its charge.

' _Gee, thanks for caring about me, guys.'_ Davis thought bitterly as he scooped Kari and Gatomon up into his arms and jumped out of the way as the Monochromon charged again. Just like before, he just barely missed the beast as it ran past them, but thankfully the speed at which it had charged this time drove it further away from them before it could turn around and it gave Davis and Kari a chance to get away.

Now, they were faced with another problem though. That little struggle had put Kari and Davis on the opposite end of the clearing from the other two, with the Monochromon in the middle. If they wanted to, they could run away now but that would mean leaving Tai and TK to their fate at the hands of a berserk dinosaur, which Davis knew wasn't really an option. If they could somehow lure the Monochromon into following after _them_ instead of their cornered friends however, then they might just get out of this.

"Alright, I got an idea." Davis said as he put Kari down on the ground, Gatomon still resting in the girl's arms. "I'll try to draw its attention away from the others, so get ready to run for your life."

He didn't wait for Kari to reply. If she valued her own and Gatomon's lives, which he knew she did, she would run regardless of how she felt about the plan. Seeing that the Monochromon seemed hesistant about which pair of humans it should go after, Davis took a step forward and whistled at it to gain its attention.

"Hey lizardboy! Over here, you big ugly jurassic reject!" he called, hoping the insult would enrage it enough to go after them, rather than their friends.

It did.

With a furious roar, the Monochromon rounded on Davis and Kari and charged them at full speeds. Kari shrieked at the sight of the approaching dinosaur and quickly turned tails and ran, Davis not far behind her. Davis could hear Tai and TK call after them, but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. He didn't like the idea of splitting their little group up, especially not so early on, but it was definetely the lesser of two evils when compared to being burned alive.

"We need to get this thing off our backs once we get far enough away from the clearing that he won't go back and bother the others again." he called to Kari over the rush of wind that was created from their running. "At my signal, we'll dive into the forest! Monochromon is too large to hunt us effectively in there."

Kari, who was already out of breath from the running, nodded in response to show that she had understood the plan. Her heart was beating painfully in her chest as they ran further and further away from the clearing they had first appeared in, but she knew that she couldn't slow down or they'd get caught.

"Now!" Davis screamed and grabbed Kari's hand to pull her into the vegetation.

As expected, the Monochromon ran right past them. It was too heavy and clumsy to make such sharp turns and the few seconds it bought them was enough to hide themselves from view before it came back. As soon as they had made it a few feet away from the path, Davis had hidden them behind a tree and covered Kari's mouth with his hand to keep her panting from giving them away. He knew that there was a huge gap in the plan and that if the Monochromon thought they were still close by, it could try and force them out of hiding by setting the vegetation on fire.

Thankfully, the sounds of the monster's heavy footsteps getting further and further away could be heard after just a few seconds. Chancing a glance, Davis stuck his head out from behind the thick tree trunk and saw the beast walking away from them. Once it was out of sight, he drew a sigh of relief and let go of Kari, who fell to the ground and started coughing from her lack of air. But despite that, they could both feel the adrenaline fade from their system as they sat down on the ground and drew a sigh of relief. They had made it.

 **-:TCD:-**

I took them about 20 minutes to find Tai and TK again. They had gotten out of the clearing as soon as the Monochromon was out of sight, and had met up with their partners while they were trying to follow the direction they had seen Kari and Davis take off in. Tai gave Davis a brotherly pound on the back for his quick thinking and the effectiveness of his plan. However, there was someone else who wasn't quite as happy with the plan...

"What in the world were you thinking?!" TK exclaimed angrily as he grit his teeth and glanced at Kari, who was still recovering from their tussle with Monochromon and the following chase. "You could've hurt yourself, or even worse, you could've hurt Kari!"

Davis felt his patience with the boy wearing thin as they followed Tai's partner, an Agumon, towards a cave where he had said he had found something interesting. He could understand that TK was worried about Kari's well-being, but there really hadn't been any other option. It had been either that or wait around for the fire to take hold and consume them alive, and that was if not Monochromon had gotten ahold of them before that.

"Listen, buddy!" he growled as he rounded on the hat-wearing boy. "I didn't like the plan either, but I was given a chance to get us all out of there in one piece and I took it! Yes, the details of the plan weren't ideal but I'd rather die trying to excecute a half-good plan than waiting for a "perfect" opportunity that might never have come!"

The two boys glared at each other for a few seconds before they turned away from each other. TK clenched his fists in frustration. It wasn't as much what Davis had done that was aggravating him as it was the fact that he himself had been unable to do anything. The last time he had been here, he had just been a little kid who couldn't look after himself, but now he was the same age as Tai and the others had been last time they were here. He had thought he would be able to help protect the others this time instead of being the one who was protected and yet Davis, someone who hadn't even been around last time, had been forced to pull them out of that situation.

"That still doesn't excuse the fact that you put Kari, as well as yourself, in harms way!" he countered, still not looking Davis in the eye.

Davis felt his hand twitch dangerously at that, as if it longed to just close around the other boy's throat and squeeze the life out of him. The pulsating in his neck from earlier returned ever so slightly as he turned back towards TK.

"Are you accusing me of not looking out for my best friend?" his voice was barely more than a whisper, but the chill behind it was enough to make the others shudder involuntarily, including TK who knew he was on the recieving end of that anger. However, he steeled his nerves and held his ground.

"All I'm saying is that I think your plan was reckless, Davis. You shouldn't have..."

"ENOUGH!"

Kari's voice seemed to cut through the argument like a newly sharpened knife through a piece of bread. Both boys turned to look at the girl in question, who was glaring back at both of them. It was evident that she was disappointed in both of them.

"I went along with the plan because I wanted to! I'm not some damsel in distress who have to be protected by everyone, I'm as much a digidestined as any of you guys!" she said, angry that they were both talking about her as if she was some kind of glass ornament that had to be handled gently or it'd break.

That seemed to difuse the situation. Tai and the digimon breathed a sigh of relief as the two boys seemed to deflate from being pierced by Kari's fierce gaze. For a moment there, it had almost looked like they had been ready to come to blows over the matter.

Davis drew a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Slowly, the pain in his neck began to recede again and his hand fell limp by his side. TK was just worried about Kari, he couldn't fault him for that. He would probably be the same if it had been the other way around. And Kari was right, they shouldn't fight amongst themselves. If they were divided, they would never work as a group and that was just asking for trouble.

"Look! There it is!" Agumon called from up ahead, drawing the attention of the group back forward.

The cave opening was simply a crack in a mountainsside, but it got bigger the further into it they got. The argument between Davis and TK momentarily forgotten, the group gathered around the object that Agumon had wanted to show them: a digiegg with a flame pattern on it, and a spike sticking out of the top.

"It has the Crest of Courage on it!" Tai gasped as he recognized the strange, sun-like symbol that was imprinted on the egg's front.

At the mention of "Crest", Davis head perked up. These guys had Crests as well? Tai had explained to him earlier that their group consisted of 8 people so if one of them had a Crest, then that would most likely mean that the remaining 8 Crests that Lord Azulongmon had told them about belonged to Tai's and Kari's group. If Davis remembered correctly, there were 11 Crests in total, 3 of which had belonged to Davis and his friends; the Crest of Miracles for him, the Crest of Kindness for Ken and the Crest of Destiny for Ryo. That would leave the Crests of Courage, Friendship, Knowledge, Reliability, Sincerety, Love, Hope and Light to be divided between Kari and her friends.

"I've never seen an egg with a spike in it." Patamon commented as he landed in front of the egg and poked at it, as if he expected it to react in some way to the poke.

"I'd hate to be the chicken that laid that egg." Gatomon muttered from her spot beside Kari's leg.

While the others tried to find a way to get the egg to move, Davis took a few steps away and closed his eyes. There was something about this place... something special. There was something in this cave, or rather _someone_. He had felt its prescence the moment they had entered the final chamber of the cave. But it couldn't be, could it? His partner had died 6 years ago, right in front of his face! So why was he sensing that same prescence that had always accompanied his energic blue friend now?

He opened his eyes slowly as his senses managed to pinpoint where the prescence was coming from. It was coming from somewhere underneath that strange egg. He felt his heartbeat rise in his chest as he watched the others try and fail to move the Digiegg. A small glimmer of hope had been lit in his chest. He didn't dare believe it, but if that egg was somehow connected to his old friend...

"Hey, let me try it!" he said as he walked up to the others.

As he bent down over the Digiegg and grabbed it with both hands, he felt his fingertips tingle with anticipation. He couldn't breathe properly, he couldn't think straight. What if he was wrong and he was just imagining it? It wouldn't be the first time he had thought he had seen Veemon out of the corner of his eye and it just turned out to be a stray dog or a kid in a blue shirt. But this feeling... it couldn't be anything else.

Gritting his teeth, he tightened his grip on the egg and lifted it off the ground. The moment it left the ground, a pillar of red light erupted from the spot on the ground where the egg had previous rested. He yelped in surprise and took a step back, half expecting something to jump out and attack them. The pillar grew until it was thick enough to cover an fully grown human, before a shape began to appear in the center of it. And it was a shape that Davis recognized!

"Veemon?" he whispered, his eyes tearing up as the familiar silhouette of his deceased partner came into view and the pillar faded from existance. The little blue digimon fell to the ground and landed swiftly on his feet. However, he only stood in place for a few seconds before his eyes fell on the one who had moved the Digiegg of Courage and he bounced at his friend in happiness.

"Davis! It's you!" he cried happily, throwing himself at the boy.

It took Davis mind a few seconds to process it. Veemon was alive. _Veemon was alive!_ His mind tried to tell him that it was impossible, but the feeling of his partner hanging on to him for dear life was _not_ an illusion. He was really here! As soon as the realization hit home, the tears that had gathered in Davis eyes began to run freely down his cheeks as he returned the embrace from his partner.

"Veemon... I-it's really you, I don't b-believe it..." he trembled with emotion as the memories of their last fight came back to his mind, those fateful moments when Veemon had gathered up every ounce of strength he had left after having been fighting for 3 days straight and unleashed it all in an explosion that tore what remained of the Digital World in half.

He didn't understand how this was possible. By all means, it shouldn't have been. Veemon had literally forced every bit of being into that last attack, there shouldn't have been anything left of him to reform. But right then, right there, it didn't matter to him. It didn't matter that it shouldn't have been possible, or how it had happened. What was important was that it _had_ happened. Veemon was back!

Over by the others, Kari watched the tearful reunion with a strange feeling building in her chest. She was happy for Davis. Whoever that little blue digimon was, he was obviously important to Davis and she was glad that they had gotten the chance to be reunited. However, there was also a feeling of dread building in her chest as her mind processed the implications of this. Davis wasn't a very emotional person. He was cheerful and out-going, but he rarely wore his emotions on a sleeve for everyone to see. She had never seen him like this before, and the implications it brought to mind unnerved her greatly.

Beside Kari, TK had also picked up on the implications of the relationship between Davis and the digimon that he guessed was his partner. The haunted look in Davis' eyes when he laid eyes on his partner... he knew that look, he had _experienced_ it himself. It might not be obvious to Kari or Tai, but to him it was frighteningly obvious as to what must've happened the last time Davis and Veemon saw each other. Suddenly, he felt bad about having argued with Davis earlier. As much as he hated to admit it, they were the same.

The group was brought out of their respective thoughts by the sound of a loud beeping from Davis' Digivice. As soon as they had come, the tears on Davis' cheeks were dried away and the boy in question had stood up, Veemon by his side. The look in his eyes however, was entirerly different from before. A fire had been lit in them upon reuniting with his partner, and it didn't falter even though the sound of a reptilian roar echoed through the cave, making the others flinch in surprise.

"We need to get out of here. If they catch us here, we'll be caught like a mouse in a corner." Davis said as he began to move towards the exit with Veemon in toe.

The sudden change of tone shocked Kari and made her look twice at her best friend. The difference from before was so obvious, it was almost as if he was an entirerly new human being. He seemed confident and sure of himself, a strange contrast to the reluctant and fearful expression he had worn when they first got here. Without questioning his logic, the others followed him out of the cave.

As the roar had implied, the Monochromon from earlier seemed to have managed to track them down again. However, it was not alone. A herde of at least 10 Monochromon, all wearing Dark Rings, were waiting for them. The sight made Kari tense with anticipation, and she felt a slight sting of fear. They had been having trouble with 1 Monochromon earlier, how were they supposed to handle 10 of them?

"Looks like the "jurassic reject" have brought some company." Tai gulped as their partner digimon took up formation around the humans, in case one of the Monochromon charged. The only exception to this was Veemon, who instead took a step forward and cracked his knuckles.

"It doesn't matter how many of them there are. 10 times 0 is still 0!" he said confidently, before turning his head slightly to glance at his partner. "Davis, open the Digiegg so I can digivolve! All you need to do is say "Digi-Armor Energize!"."

At the mention of the Digiegg, Davis glanced down to find that he was still holding it in his hand. He had completely forgotten about it, with all the emotional turmoil he had felt upon seeing Veemon again. He had originally intended to try and figure out an escape plan, Gatomon's warning about the Digivolution Block still fresh in mind, but perhaps Veemon knew something about the Digiegg that he didn't? Well, it wasn't like he had anything to lose by trying.

" **Digi-Armor Energize!** "

The egg lit up with an orange glow and grew to engulf Veemon. Davis had to cover his eyes as to not be blinded by the light, but he could practically feel the power radiating from the egg. After a second, the egg slipped from his grip and flew over to Veemon, where it seemed to fuse with the glowing silhouette of the little blue digimon.

" **Veemon Armor-Digivolve tooooooo... Flamedramon! The Fire of Courage!** "

As the light faded, a new digimon stood in place of Veemon, one that even Davis had never seen before. It looked like a taller version of his partner, with flame patterned armor covering his face, chest, hands, knees and feet. At the back of his chest armor, Davis recognized the Crest of Courage and a horn was growing out of his head, similar to the "spike" that had been growing out of the Digiegg.

All 4 humans, as well as the 3 remaining Digimon partners, stared wide-eyed at the tall figure that stood in front of them. Flamedramon grinned confidently as he eyed the herd of Monochromon, who had also frozen in place by the unexpected digivolution. Without warning, the Armor-Digimon charged forward, his right claw alight with fire.

" _ **Knuckle Fire!**_ " he called as he slammed his burning claw in the closest Monochromon, knocking it back several feet and causing it to be engulfed in flames, as the fire spread from Flamedramon's claw.

The Monochromon howled in pain, and that seemed to alert the rest of the herd to the fact that they were being attacked. The humans and the rookie digimon completely forgotten, they charged towards Flamedramon, who had landed a few feet away from the herd. Before they could reach him however, he had used his long legs like a pair of springs and launched himself high into the air.

Davis watched his partner deal with the Monochromon with a mesmerized look in his eyes. It had been so long since he had seen his partner, and he followed the Armor-Digimon's every move with awe. He had forgotten how exciting it could be to see his friend do battle with another digimon. The whole concept that fighting could actually be any kind of enjoyable had been lost on him somewhere between achieving Veemon's Ultimate Form and having the fate of all worlds dumped harshly on his shoulders.

As Flamedramon descended on the herd again, he lit his fist again and made a punching motion to unleash a rain of fireballs on his opponents. He was lucky they weren't too close to the forest, or he was sure he would've set it aflame. The fireballs hit home and dealt a fair amount of damage to the entire herde, something the Monochromon let them know by roaring in pain as they were hit by his attack.

"Flamedramon! Destroy the Dark Rings!" Gatomon cried out.

Immediately picking up on what Gatomon was talking about, Flamedramon narrowed his eyes as he located the Dark Rings. There were 9 rings left to destroy, as the first Monochromon had already collapsed from the single strike it had received earlier, its ring having been burnt away by the flames. Taking a deep breath, he engulfed himsef in an aura of fire and dove towards the closest target.

" _ **Fire Rocket!**_ " he bellowed as he struck the Dark Ring around the Monochromon's belly, earning himself a roar from the creature in question as the ring was instantly destroyed.

The rookie digimon cheered for him as he destroyed a second ring and Flamedramon couldn't help the grin that spread across his lips. He had been locked up for over 1000 years now, and it felt good to finally be able to flex his muscles a little. Not wasting any time, he ignited his fist again and struck out at a Monochromon that had come up behind him in an attempt to get the jump on him. Just 7 more rings to go.

Over by the others, Davis had snapped out of the trance-like state he had entered upon seeing Veemon fight again and had began to try and determine how strong this new form was in comparison to Veemon's regular Digivolution line. To his disappointment, Flamedramon wasn't even close to Veedramon when it came to pure strength, but he was by far more agile and flexible. Also, his smaller size would make it easier to fight in closed spaces, as opposed to his Champion Form, which had always been a hindrance rather than a strength when they fought in small areas.

" _ **Fire Rocket!**_ " Flamedramon called as he covered himself in flames again and shot off towards the only remaining Monochromon. The dinosaur met his charge midway, but missed his target as Flamedramon swiftly jumped over his head and dove straight for the Dark Ring. He might enjoy a good fight once in a while, but he didn't want to be unnescesarily brutal if he could avoid it and he felt like he had already had enough fun for one day.

As the last Dark Ring disintegrated, Flamedramon was covered in an orange light again and turned back into Veemon, while the Digiegg of Courage went back to Davis and reformed into a new strange device, a D-Terminal. Davis studied the foreign object for a few seconds, but eventually put it back in his pocket. He could examine that thing once they got back home.

"So what do you think? Pretty neat, huh?" Veemon's childish voice brought the stunned group of humans out of their stupor.

Seeing his partner scratch the back of his head sheepishly, Davis couldn't help but smile at the familiar gesture. Beside him, Kari mirrored his amused expression. That sheepish expression reminded her heavily of Davis when he was either embarrassed or tried to apologize about something. She didn't know who had picked it up from the other, but the similarities between the two partners were striking.

"Yeah, it was. There's just one thing that bothers me, though." Davis said mischievously, drawing the attention of the others. Even Veemon blinked in surprise at that and glanced up at his partner with an unsure look on his childish face. He could tell that his partner was a bit different to how he used to be, but he didn't think he had done anything that would bother him too much. However, as Davis grin grew wider, he realized that his partner was having them on, before he had even opened his mouth.

"When did you learn multiplication?"

 **-:TCD:-**

As the group made their way back towards the spot where they had first arrived, Kari was too engrossed in her thoughts to notice what the others were talking about. The digimon seemed to be discussing why Veemon had been able to Digivolve to Flamedramon when the rest of them hadn't been able to Digivolve at all, and Tai was having a conversation with TK about calling the entire old group together to discuss what they should do about this new threat, now that they had some intel on how the Dark Rings worked. Both those topics, as interesting as they were, wasn't what had caught Kari's attention however.

She gazed at the back of her best friend, walking a few feet in front of her. Up until today, she had thought she knew everything there was to know about him. They had known each other since they were 5 years old, and that friendship had been essential to her being able to re-accustom to life without Gatomon. She liked to think that they were as close as friends could be, but now he felt like a stranger to her.

And she didn't like it.

The way Davis had acted today had been unlike anything she had ever seen him do before. He had been tense and on guard constantly and had seemed reluctant to open the Gateway to the Digital World. It wasn't obvious, but Kari could see it in how stiff his movements had been while he worked on the coding for the portal to open. When they had appeared in the Digital World, he had appeared to be in pain and had reacted instinctively and impulsively to the threats, like an animal, only to do a 180 degrees turn around when Veemon had appeared. It was all just so weird, so unlike the calm, collected and cheerful boy she had thought she knew.

Her gaze turned towards Veemon, who had left the other digimon and walked up to Davis. It was obvious that something had happened in the past that involved Veemon that had sharpened Davis into who he was while he was in the Digital World. But she couldn't for the life of her figure out what could've happened.

"Alright, we're here!" Davis declared as the entered the clearing.

The grass had been singed badly be the fire that had been lit by Monochromon's Volcanic Strikes, but the fire had thankfully not spread to the forest that surrounded the area. As they approached the area where they had first entered, Davis pulled out his Digivice.

"Okay, we should probably not return all at once or we'll just end up in a pile of twisted limbs. I'll wait on this side until the rest of you guys have made it through, to make sure the Gate is closed correctly. We don't want any random digimon to accidently trigger the rift and appear in our world now, do we?"

Everyone shook their head at that, and they each pulled out their Digivices. Tai went ahead and pushed the button that Davis instructed him to use first, causing him to become engulfed in digital code and disappear into thin air. Kari made to follow her older brother, but stopped herself as she noticed TK staring at Davis where he stood. Their earlier argument fresh in mind, she hesitated to leave them behind by themselves.

"Go on. I want to talk to Davis about something." TK said when he noticed her hesitation. "I promise, I won't fight with him."

Kari still hesitated for a second, but gave in when she noticed Davis nod discreetly at her. Taking a deep breath and praying that her two best friends wouldn't tear each other to pieces behind her back, she pressed the button and was engulfed in digital code, before she too disappeared.

Silence hung in the air in the clearing, as TK and Davis stared at each other. Agumon, Patamon and Veemon had taken a few steps back, apparently sensing that this was a private conversation, and Gatomon had went back to the Real World along with Kari. For a few seconds, none of them said anything and just studied the other's face, as if sizing the other up. Then, Davis broke the silence.

"So? What did you want to talk about?" he asked.

TK took a deep breath and steeled himself. He knew that he was playing with fire right now.

"It's almost unbearable, isn't it?" he said quietly. "The pain of losing your partner in battle. I saw the way you and Veemon looked at each other earlier and I know that pain all too well. I've been there."

He bit his lip, not sure how to proceed from there. It felt like it had been so long ago now, that he had lost Patamon during their clash with Devimon on File Island, yet he remembered it as if it was just yesterday. He had never talked about it with anyone, not even Matt. At the time, he had just done his best to try and forget that it ever happened, but with time he had come to realize that the scar that had been left in his heart after that battle would never heal. It would always be there, tormenting him whenever they faced a strong opponent.

Davis stared at the other boy, his mouth moving but not able to make any sound. Of all the things he had expected the boy to say, this certainly wasn't one of them. He closed his mouth and glanced over towards Patamon. The little Mammal Digimon looked so carefree, talking with Agumon and Veemon and making avid motions with his arms, as if he was trying to describe something.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have snapped at you. It's just, I care for Kari so much and when I saw Monochromon chase after you guys I was so scared that she would end up like Patamon, just that she wouldn't be reborn."

Silence fell over the pair as they both thought back to the losses they had each suffered during their respective adventure, more specifically the losses of their partners. While TK couldn't imagine how painful it would be if they lost Kari and she didn't come back, Davis had a pretty good idea. Up until today, he had been convinced that he had lost Veemon forever, and he knew _exactly_ how it would feel to lose the one person he cared about above anything else.

"When you put it like that, I guess I can't fault you for getting angry with me." Davis said at least, breaking the silence. "It was a reckless plan, and I would've probably reacted the same way, had it been me left behind back there." ' _Probably even worse.'_ he thought. "Just know that whatever I do, I do with the group's best interests at heart. No one in this group will get hurt, as long as I have any say in it."

The two boys studied each others' faces for any sign, any _hint_ , that what they had said was insincere. However, neither of them found any. Seeing the determination in Davis eyes, TK felt his heart ease up a little and he felt a little better about the new addition to their group. He knew that as long as Davis was still around, no harm would come to Kari or any of their other friends. That much was certain.

"Thank you."

* * *

 **A/N:** _Phew! I can't believe I actually wrote like 9k words in one day! I seriously need to get a life... Just kidding._

 _Jokes aside, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. If you did, please leave a review to tell me what you thought about it. Actually, leave a review even if there were something about the chapter you didn't like. I can't better myself if no1 tells me what I do wrong. That being said, I'll see you next time!_


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